You'll get no argument for me that pure capitalism isn't the answer. I've been reading, and enjoying, Michael Sandel's book What Money Can't Buy which is about the way we tend to use the market to settle too wide a variety of things these days - allocating lifesaving healthcare, access to elected officials, etc. His point is that there are some things that when you use the market to distribute them, it changes the value and "cheapens" the good in question. (It's not just that the poor don't have enough money to buy what they need; it's that when you put a money-value on some things you take away part of what makes them valuable.) I think he's on to something, but then I'm sympathetic to his line of thought.

As for the rest - I do know there's a difference between communism and socialism, and tried to flesh out what I mean by those terms in the comment just below this. But one thing Dwim convinced me of was that I don't understand the theory behind all this nearly well enough, and I need to read up before I really defend any opinion on it. So perhaps I should keep my mouth shut on a lot of this for now. :-)